Dreams are funny things. I rarely remember mine. They seem to dissipate as soon as I get up and its rare that I remember them at all. I had one about three weeks ago. In it I was eating with a friend. I can't remember which friend. There was somewhere we had to be, but we figured we had plenty of time. In the end we were rushing towards my place. I live in James Bay, a downtown neighborhood in Victoria. On the way I found myself in an area I had never been before. It was strange. I've lived in the city for 27 years, but I had no idea where I was. I looked at a building across the street. It looked very familiar. Then I woke up.I quickly forgot most of the dream, but the image of the building stayed with me. I knew that building. I puzzled over it all morning before I realized that the image was a memory and not simply something my subconscious made up. And I realized that because it was a childhood memory my perspective was a bit skewed. Buildings, distances, had seemed bigger than they do now and that added to the strangeness of the dream. I also figured it was in the Old Town or Inner Harbour area of the city--pretty much the same thing--but that was about it.Because dreams so seldom stay with me, I decided to track down the building. To find out what I was remembering. I didn't grow up in Victoria, but my father did and when we were very young he would take the family on trips to see his mother. She was already quite old and so he stopped including the children after a while--she was in a home and a bunch of bored kids was seen as something of a disturbance. So I had a time frame. The image/memory had to be from the 1960s.When I had a free morning I made my way to the City of Victoria Archives to look for a picture of the building. On my first visit I familiarized myself with how things worked. On my second I came equipped with a list of street names and had every intention to check each one. I didn't get very far, though, before I found the above picture in their Johnson Street file. Its the corner of Johnson and Broad Streets.Now, I know there are other buildings like it, and I realize that there is a small possibility that the memory could be of some place on the Lower Mainland (that's the Vancouver area for non-locals), but looking at the picture I felt very sure that this was it. I looked at some other files, but began to feel I was wasting my time and I stopped looking and bought a copy. With it I went to the corner and there it was! The exterior is red brick now, but the design so much the same that I suspect there was always red brick under the paint or plaster. Even more interesting, see the door in the center of the picture? That's the entrance to Curious Books and Comics, I place I shop at at least once a week.Now why I would remember my local comics shop as it was forty years ago, I have no idea!Originally Pubished at: David Bird

Dreams are funny things. I rarely remember mine. They seem to dissipate as soon as I get up and its rare that I remember them at all. I had one about three weeks ago. In it I was eating with a friend. I can't remember which friend. There was somewhere we had to be, but we figured we had plenty of time. In the end we were rushing towards my place. I live in James Bay, a downtown neighborhood in Victoria. On the way I found myself in an area I had never been before. It was strange. I've lived in the city for 27 years, but I had no idea where I was. I looked at a building across the street. It looked very familiar. Then I woke up.I quickly forgot most of the dream, but the image of the building stayed with me. I knew that building. I puzzled over it all morning before I realized that the image was a memory and not simply something my subconscious made up. And I realized that because it was a childhood memory my perspective was a bit skewed. Buildings, distances, had seemed bigger than they do now and that added to the strangeness of the dream. I also figured it was in the Old Town or Inner Harbour area of the city--pretty much the same thing--but that was about it.Because dreams so seldom stay with me, I decided to track down the building. To find out what I was remembering. I didn't grow up in Victoria, but my father did and when we were very young he would take the family on trips to see his mother. She was already quite old and so he stopped including the children after a while--she was in a home and a bunch of bored kids was seen as something of a disturbance. So I had a time frame. The image/memory had to be from the 1960s.When I had a free morning I made my way to the City of Victoria Archives to look for a picture of the building. On my first visit I familiarized myself with how things worked. On my second I came equipped with a list of street names and had every intention to check each one. I didn't get very far, though, before I found the above picture in their Johnson Street file. Its the corner of Johnson and Broad Streets.Now, I know there are other buildings like it, and I realize that there is a small possibility that the memory could be of some place on the Lower Mainland (that's the Vancouver area for non-locals), but looking at the picture I felt very sure that this was it. I looked at some other files, but began to feel I was wasting my time and I stopped looking and bought a copy. With it I went to the corner and there it was! The exterior is red brick now, but the design so much the same that I suspect there was always red brick under the paint or plaster. Even more interesting, see the door in the center of the picture? That's the entrance to Curious Books and Comics, I place I shop at at least once a week.Now why I would remember my local comics shop as it was forty years ago, I have no idea!Originally Pubished at: David Bird

Our staffer GHERU’s “RU”views. This vid he covers the top three and bottom three books with “Sh*t you should, and should not; be reading”Authors: xaraanRead more http://theouthouseblog.tumblr.com/post/11884546451

One of the OH posters has an X-Men Gender Swap thread where he is putting up some computer renders of characters. I really like this Female Havok concept myself, but there are a lot of cool ideas in the thread. Click the pic to check it out.Authors: xaraanRead more http://theouthouseblog.tumblr.com/post/11881560992

Join us for the Live Outhouse Pirate Podcast Sunday nights at 9:30 PM ET at the following link http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/84036
and if you miss it you can download the show for FREE on Bludcast Radio on Itunes! http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bludcast-radio-the-official/id340111408
This week’s show we talked about Video games Batman Arkham City, X-Men Destiny, Spider-Man: Edge of Time. For TV the Walking Dead Season 2, Young Justice, and the new shows that are hot, cancelled or soon to be. We also talk about COMIC BOOKS! The end of Fear It Self, Spider-Island, and the Marvel Books that got canceled. We cap the show off with The Marvel Layoff controversy, but not before I sneak in a review for the newish Kevin Smith movie Red State!Authors: xaraanRead more http://theouthouseblog.tumblr.com/post/11869507423

Dark City (1998)Directed by Alex Proyas, Starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jennifer ConnellyI hadn’t watched Dark City in many years, when I decided to pop it in this week, and I wondered first of all if I would still in enjoy it as much as I once did. The film has had a devoted following amongst science fiction and fantasy fans since its release, though it wasn’t a box office success at the time (in spite of generally positive reviews). I had picked it up on VHS, but never upgraded my copy to DVD or Blu-ray (I rented a DVD copy).The opening narration spills all the secrets: the Strangers are a dying race and studying us because they believe we may hold the key to their continued existence. John Murdoch wakes up in a hotel bath tub to find out he has no memories and that there is the body of a dead, carved up prostitute on the floor beside the bed. Fleeing the scene he is stopped by the clerk who tells him that the automat has called. He’s left his wallet there. The wallet leads him to his home, a wife who’s cheated on him, and a psychiatrist who’s been helping him deal with the breakdown of his marriage. If he’s off to a bad start, it only gets worse as he discovers strange powers and encounters the Strangers themselves, all while trying to figure out who he is and how to elude the police.It’s at these times that the movie is strongest. Proyas has assembled a strong cast and the story works best when puzzling over koans like, how do you get to Shell Beach? But in the second half of the movie story development is given over to a series of chase and fight scenes (which largely translates into people staring really hard at each other) and it just isn’t as interesting. It rests on atmosphere and set design, which become somewhat repetitive after a while. I mean, how many noir-ishly lit streets does one need? In the end Sutherland’s character comes up with an impressive way to save the day, but it’s used to generate a conventional comic book ending (read: principle characters hitting one another).A good movie if you’re looking for something different, or want to entertain a SF fan (though they’ve probably already seen it); but it’s an uneven film.NOTE: This film shares with The Matrix the ideas that the world isn’t what it seems and that we’re being controlled by malevolent forces. Dark City was released first, thirteen months before the Wachowski Brothers film.Originally Pubished at: David Bird

Dark City (1998)Directed by Alex Proyas, Starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jennifer ConnellyI hadn’t watched Dark City in many years, when I decided to pop it in this week, and I wondered first of all if I would still in enjoy it as much as I once did. The film has had a devoted following amongst science fiction and fantasy fans since its release, though it wasn’t a box office success at the time (in spite of generally positive reviews). I had picked it up on VHS, but never upgraded my copy to DVD or Blu-ray (I rented a DVD copy).The opening narration spills all the secrets: the Strangers are a dying race and studying us because they believe we may hold the key to their continued existence. John Murdoch wakes up in a hotel bath tub to find out he has no memories and that there is the body of a dead, carved up prostitute on the floor beside the bed. Fleeing the scene he is stopped by the clerk who tells him that the automat has called. He’s left his wallet there. The wallet leads him to his home, a wife who’s cheated on him, and a psychiatrist who’s been helping him deal with the breakdown of his marriage. If he’s off to a bad start, it only gets worse as he discovers strange powers and encounters the Strangers themselves, all while trying to figure out who he is and how to elude the police.It’s at these times that the movie is strongest. Proyas has assembled a strong cast and the story works best when puzzling over koans like, how do you get to Shell Beach? But in the second half of the movie story development is given over to a series of chase and fight scenes (which largely translates into people staring really hard at each other) and it just isn’t as interesting. It rests on atmosphere and set design, which become somewhat repetitive after a while. I mean, how many noir-ishly lit streets does one need? In the end Sutherland’s character comes up with an impressive way to save the day, but it’s used to generate a conventional comic book ending (read: principle characters hitting one another).A good movie if you’re looking for something different, or want to entertain a SF fan (though they’ve probably already seen it); but it’s an uneven film.NOTE: This film shares with The Matrix the ideas that the world isn’t what it seems and that we’re being controlled by malevolent forces. Dark City was released first, thirteen months before the Wachowski Brothers film.Originally Pubished at: David Bird

One of the most awesome columns at the Outhouse is Super Reads. The guy reads all the giant crossovers, every book and breaks it down for you each week so that you don’t have to. Now that Fear Itself has wrapped up, if you want to fill in the blanks or catch up on the whole story before the trade lands start right here:
Super Reads 138
Follow the column week by week as he reads all the crossovers:
Super Reads Column
It was a huge undertaking as you can see, ending at Super Reads 163.
It’s a lot cheaper than reading every single Fear Itself book marvel put out and probably less time consuming and from what I can tell you, more enjoyable. I’m pretty sure by the end of most of these the writer is borderline insane so hopefully he catches his breath again before Marvel gets going with this “Point” thing they talked about at NYCC.
He also puts these little scenes in them to break up the long reads, I’m pretty sure he’s changed the speech bubbles in them. No way are they really this entertaining.Authors: xaraanRead more http://theouthouseblog.tumblr.com/post/11844667924

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Why I Love Comics Podcast is out! NYCC edition
In this edition of the podcast we go to a convention…New York Comic Con to be exact. This is a favorite convention of mine every year and this is a packed supershow. On the episode I talk with Eddi Mcclintock (Pete on Warehouse 13) Peter David, Tim Seeley, Claudio Sanchez and Chondra Sanchez, Fred Van Lente, The Kirby Krackle, Jeremy Haun and David Hine, Keith R.A. DecandidoAuthors: xaraanRead more http://theouthouseblog.tumblr.com/post/11843669618

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